How Almost Losing My Son In 2022 Helped Me To Define 2023 Goals

Posted on January 9, 2023 Updated on January 12, 2023

September 18, 2022, was like any other late summer Southern California day. The weather was nice, and my family and I were excited to use our Disneyland annual passes. As we prepared to leave, we noticed our then 15-month-old son was extra clingy and kept wanting to be held, which wasn’t unusual. But soon, clingy behavior turned into favoring one leg, and then he wasn’t willing to walk.

At first, we thought he strained his right leg trying to climb out of his crib. He was normally our little Tasmanian Devil, climbing up on furniture and running around. So, the fact that he suddenly wasn’t willing to walk was worrisome. We almost went along with our plans to go to Disneyland, figuring he would spend most of the day in his stroller, anyway. But we followed our parental instincts and took him into the emergency room. We had no idea what was in store for us. My husband and I expected to be in and out of the hospital, possibly with a prescription for pain meds. We hoped it would be nothing more than our son being needy. While my daughter was advanced and an early speaker, our son was born premature by 6 weeks. He was trying to communicate with Mommy and Daddy as best as he could. He was telling us something was very wrong, even as he couldn’t speak.

Everything happened so fast. One minute we were in the ER, and the next, our son was transported via ambulance from South Bay to Anaheim Kaiser Permanente hospital, over an hour away. The ER doctor had explained to us that X-rays were negative, but blood tests showed septic arthritis in his hip, a serious infection. An immediate procedure was necessary to drain his hip and begin determining what bacteria was in play.

Later that night, our baby had emergency surgery. We spoke to multiple doctors and specialists who indicated surprise at how much puss was present. It ended up being a staph infection caused by streptococcus pneumoniae. When not addressed immediately, the blood-borne bacteria can often lead to not only amputation of limbs but also death. The infectious diseases doctor said that our son had turned septic. If we hadn’t acted as fast as we did, our son, barely over 20 pounds in weight, would’ve never survived. In many cases, adults 10 times my son’s size die within 24 hours of turning septic because the bacteria spreads so quickly, eating away at organs. Your body begins to shut down and can die within days, if not hours.

What we originally thought would be a quick in-and-out visit ended up being a 7.5-day, in-patient stay at the hospital. While there are other worse-case scenarios of children staying at the hospitals for much longer, the entire ordeal was quite trying and traumatic. In the era of COVID, some of us are still adjusting to lifestyle changes. But what we’ve learned from the pandemic is that we have nothing without our health. Good health is chief to our success in obtaining our goals. This was just four months ago, and our son has made a full recovery. But it has made a lasting impact on how we view our 2023 goals.

As a writer and an aspiring author, I’m a mother first. My kids are everything to me. My husband and I are now back to being winded as we chase our little Bubba around. At night when he’s asleep in my arms, I often reflect on just how close we came to losing him. I had dealt with secondary infertility to have my son and had 16 losses before him. The fact that he was born at all after so many failed pregnancies is a testament that miracles do happen. But the biggest miracle of all was the fact that he had survived staph infection and septic arthritis.

When the infectious disease doctor called to check in with us once we were finally home, I’ll never forget how he kept repeating to me over and over just how glad they were that we acted as quickly as we did. This new year, being thankful doesn’t even cover what I feel. I am beyond grateful every day our son takes a breath, that he’s here with us, and we still get to run after him.

The Bottom Line

Despite my son’s health issues last year, I still managed to revise my previous manuscript while finishing a new WIP. I even managed to continue posting on social media and also helping my seven-year-old daughter start a kid’s YouTube channel called Happy Girl Reads, where she’ll be mostly reviewing children’s books. We’re doing it just for fun. Being a content creator and juggling life definitely hasn’t been easy. With anything, you must prioritize. I put posting blogs on hold to complete my manuscript, the YouTube channel, and several contract projects while also taking care of my son. That’s why my last post was in August 2022. My son got sick the following month.

Aside from my continuous publication efforts, my goal this year is to get back to a blogging schedule where I’m posting at least twice a month. People often have lofty writing goals, but we forget to account for situational and unavoidable circumstances that life throws our way. We also forget to be kind and compassionate toward ourselves. In my next blog, I’ll discuss how I managed to still write and edit through my family’s health scare.

Remember, if you dealt with hurdles in 2022, instead of seeing them as setbacks, view them as opportunities for progression and development in 2023. We grow through our trials and can succeed as a result. When we appreciate our obstacles, it humbles and strengthens us as writers. Allowing our challenges to be a part of the canvas that inspires us makes our characters more 3-dimensional. Hopefully, it also helps us become stronger storytellers because we’re channeling our personal experiences into our work. Readers can feel it when you’re writing from an authentic place.

If you’re not quite where you want to be in 2023, don’t discount where you once were and how far you’ve come.

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2023, Goals, Health, Inspiration, Life, New Year, Staph Infection, Writing, Writing Community.

31 thoughts on “How Almost Losing My Son In 2022 Helped Me To Define 2023 Goals”

IanC said:
January 9, 2023 at 6:31 AM

Thank you for sharing this 🙏

LikeLiked by 2 people

S.Z. Estavillo responded:
January 9, 2023 at 9:04 AM

I appreciate you stopping by and reading. Hope you reach your 2023 goals!

How Almost Losing My Son In 2022 Helped Me To Define 2023 Goals

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31 thoughts on “How Almost Losing My Son In 2022 Helped Me To Define 2023 Goals”

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